The objectives of this investigation are (1) to use the insight cameras to monitor atmospheric opacity (TAU) through the mission; (2) to characterize the atmospheric dust at the landing site and place…

This is a $441,125 grant awarded by NASA's Shared Services Center to the Space Science Institute (SSI), a non-profit research organization based in Boulder, Colorado. The grant supports a research project to use the InSight lander's cameras to monitor atmospheric opacity, characterize atmospheric dust, study boundary-layer meteorology, identify and characterize ice clouds and hazes, and measure night opacity and micrometeorite impacts on Mars. The proposed work leverages experience gained from analyzing similar data from the Opportunity rover's NavCam. This grant does not have a set-aside designation, indicating SSI competed for the award based on scientific and technical merit. SSI has a history of conducting advanced scientific research and providing technical services to federal agencies like NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy through both contract awards and grants.

The objectives of this investigation are (1) to use the insight cameras to monitor atmospheric opacity (TAU) through the mission; (2) to characterize the atmospheric dust at the landing site and place IT into context with other measurements; (3) to characterize the role of dust in boundary-layer meteorology; (4) to identify and characterize ICE clouds and hazes, and constrain the winds that transport them; and (5) measure night opacity and constrain the rate of micro-meteorite impacts. The proposed work requires images from the instrument deployment camera (IDC) with the instrument context camera (ICC) as a backup. Arm motions are not planned after the deployment phase; thus the proposed work is based around a single aim near the southern horizon, consistent with ICC and IDC capabilities. To measure opacity, sky images taken early or late in the day will provide sky radiance over a range of elevation and scattering angles. Variation of radiance along constant scattering angle determines atmospheric opacity; given well-calibrated, accurate data, a radiative transfer model (disort) retrieval of opacity is straightforward. For real data, obtained with a camera exposed to a dusty martian environment for an extended time, use of relative radiance variation (with elevation angle, at constant scattering angle) largely removes the effect of a dust coating that may vary in time and reduces sensitivity to calibration uncertainties. The proposed method was tested with sky imaging data acquired over one mars year using opportunity's navcam. The opportunity images were taken in insight-analog mode, with a fixed aim across martian seasons, and included times of dust storms, seasonally high and low dust, and dust mixed with ICE hazes. Comparisons to directly measured (pancam) opacity determined that the intrinsic error of the navcam method was